Google Maps provides live lane guidance for drivers of the Google-powered electric Polestar 4. Business announced on Tuesday that the novel feature relies on the electric vehicle’s front camera to “see” lane markings and road signs. This information is fed to Google Maps AI and provides the driver with real-time, tailored audio and visual lane-merging guidance.
Google provides an example of what this might look like. Suppose you are driving in the left lane of an American highway and the exit is ahead of you on the right. “With live lane guidance, just look at your dashboard display to see exactly which lane you may be in at any given moment,” Google says in a blog post. (Of course you can also look at the road to get this information). The live guidance feature in Maps can detect that you are several lanes to the left of an exit and remind you to merge at the appropriate time. (The rest of the passengers can also remind you of this.)
Polestar vehicles utilize built-in Google Android software to power their infotainment system. As a result, over the past five years, Google has integrated other products such as Google Chrome and high-resolution maps into Polestar cars.
“Live lane guidance continues the path of Polestar’s driver-centric UX strategy, reducing driver stress and improving safety by eliminating the worries of missed exits and last-minute lane changes,” Polestar head of UX/UI Sid Odedra said in a statement.
The novel Maps feature will be available alongside standard features such as real-time traffic alerts and estimated arrival times. For now, live lane guidance is only available on Polestar 4 cars with Google’s built-in feature and only in the US and Sweden, but the company says it plans to make the feature available to more cars through partnerships with other automakers. The company also says it plans to add more types of roads in addition to highways.